Sins of the Father
by Ginjaa Ninjaa
Summary: Naruto wasn't born as the son of Minato and Kushina. instead he was born as the son of Orochimaru. This made life hard enough for the son of Konoha's most hated criminal. The real kick in the teeth was that he lived in Konoha and had to bare the brunt of this stigma. The icing on top of the cake was that he wasn't even allowed to enter the academy! Luckily he was given a lifeline.
1. Look

**This is a adaptation of a challenge on the profile of one of my favourite authors. Their profile is Bleedndreamz. If any of you want to check out the full challenge check the profile! There will be a few changes to this version though; just a forewarning.**

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If there was one person that Minato Namikaze and absolutely hated, it was Orochimaru. He hated that man with absolutely every fibre in their body. It wasn't enough that he had to go and experiment on innocent children.

No the single incident that caused Minato, the person who was arguably the nicest person in the world to house outright hatred for Orochimaru was October the tenth.

In one night, Minato had gone from being a lovingly married man to an angry father. The whole entire landscape that surrounded not only his family but also more importantly his family was completely changed.

He had been put into a no win situation thanks to Orochimaru which left Minato the proud father of the Kyubi jinchuuriki.

The cherry on top of the ice cream out of all of this was that the roach had left his offspring inside _his _village.

**x-X-x**

Naruto was a bright boy. He had to be if he wanted to survive.

One of the first things that he learnt at the orphanage was that people didn't really like him. He found out this first hand when two kids who had come from similar broken upbringings decided to send him a message.

That message happened to be that when fists and feet connected with his body, they hurt. They hurt a lot. He cried out of emotional and physical distress once the two boys had left him lying on the tanbark at the academy.

Admittedly, Naruto had hoped that someone would have come to him and told him that things would be alright, that this would never happen again.

That didn't happen at all though. In fact, the complete opposite happened. Naruto was left out in the tanbark to fend for himself. To the three year old Naruto, this was the first ever time that he felt angry with how the world worked. He wanted to know why there seemed to be a different set of rules for him compared to everyone else.

He didn't exactly have to wait all that long to find out why it was that he go treated differently in comparison to everyone else. Naruto had gone up to one of the matrons at the orphanage and asked them if they perhaps knew who his parents were.

Said woman was only so happy to tell Naruto just who his father was. She didn't know who his mother was but that didn't matter, given who his father was, her money was either on a rape victim or a grade A prostitute.

Had Naruto known what he was in for, he might not have asked this question on the day of his birth. It would forever taint his opinion of the world. It was the day that a little bit of Naruto died.

He found out that his father was none other than Orochimaru.

It was only now, over the course of a month with the knowledge of who his father was that Naruto truly understood why he was different. Why he seemed to get the short end of every stick.

He was the son of Konoha's most hated traitor and it seemed that they wanted to take out some of their anger for Orochimaru out on him. He wasn't exactly sure what his father had done to Konoha but he knew that it had to be something bad.

It was at this point that that Naruto learnt the existence of ninjas at the tender age of four. Thanks to learning a bit more about his father which admittedly was anything from good tales of the man, Naruto found out that ninjas were really strong.

They were strong enough to prevent anyone including Naruto's two bullies from ever hurting him. It was one too many assaults that Naruto vowed to himself that he would become a ninja and a good one at that so he didn't have to get beaten up all the time.

With that in mind, Naruto went over to the orphanage matron and asked her if he could join the academy, after all, he had heard that it was the place that young kids go to become to be a shinobi.

Naruto was in for a rude surprise when he found out that unfortunately, he couldn't attend the academy.

When he heard this, the black haired boy died on the inside. Ever since he found out about shinobi, he knew that he had to become one. Shinobi were powerful. If he got powerful enough, no one would be able to be mean to him. There was that and even at a young age, Naruto knew that he would have a rough time living a normal life because of who his father was. He assumed that he wouldn't be able to get a job because he was the son of Orochimaru. What Naruto didn't know was just how on the money he actually was.

It was right then and there that Naruto decided that he would become a shinobi even if he couldn't go to the academy. He simply had no other option.

With that in mind Naruto headed straight for the library. He had heard about the place from one of the orphan matrons and that it housed a lot of books. The books were good as far as he was concerned. They didn't judge him. They didn't make him feel subhuman.

They only answered the questions he had.

It was here that Naruto begun learning about becoming a shinobi.

The caretakers at the orphanage didn't mind one bit with the fact that Naruto spent so much time outside of the orphanage without any form of supervision. As much as they didn't say it, potential parents who were looking to adopt did not want to see the son of Orochimaru amongst their ranks.

The only time Naruto ever left the library was to go back, get lunch, dinner and when the library closed which thankfully for Naruto, this happened to be 6:30. Thankfully for Naruto this also happened to be his bed time at the orphanage so essentially, out of his own free will, Naruto spent the better part of 10 hours a day inside the library studying to be a shinobi.

He didn't spend time with friends because he didn't have any. He had quickly realised that kids didn't want to hang out with him because of both what their parents had told them and also because if they associated with Naruto, then they would lose all of their other friends.

Forming a potential friendship with Naruto was not worth losing all of your other friends.

This didn't bother Naruto though, the improvements that he had seen in himself during the time that he spent at the academy were tremendous. He read up on everything that he could get his hands on. From ninjutsu, to taijutsu, to genjutsu, all the way to fuinjutsu and back to kenjutsu; the more that Naruto learnt about the ninja arts, the more he found himself enraptured in it.

Of course he knew that he couldn't do any kenjutsu simply because he was too poor to afford even the most brittle of wooden training swords. The same could be said for kunai and shuriken as Naruto had no money whatsoever. He was simply given what the orphanage could provide for him.

This also rung true when it was time for Naruto to get a haircut. He had no money to go out and get one and the orphanage didn't provide them free of charge. You had to go out and earn money for a luxury like that. For pretty much all orphaned kids, this was not at all a problem. The second that you dropped the bombshell that you were an orphan, people of Konoha were happy to help you earn a little bit of pocket money.

Unfortunately for Naruto, he was not most orphaned kids, hell he wasn't most normal people. There was a stigma attached to his name and the way he looked that no one was willing to help him out even the smallest bit.

He hated the way that he had to earn every little thing he got in life whilst everyone else seemed to be getting things handed to him on a silver platter.

**x-X-x**

"Hello there Naruto-kun, how are you today." The second that Naruto heard someone call out his name, he turned around. To his utter amazement, right there in front of him was none other than the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha. Thanks to his intense studying, Naruto had indeed recognized who the man was despite the fact that he was not in the Hokage robes which wore in pretty much every picture ever taken of him.

Naruto shrunk into his raggedy t-shirt when he saw such a powerful ninja for the first time. "Um hello. What do you want with me?" Naruto questioned in a small tone of voice. He hoped he had done nothing to ire the Sandaime Hokage.

Hiruzen simply smiled at the boy. "Would you like a lemon drop Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen questioned as he offered a small lolly to Naruto.

Naruto was torn. Even in his young years, he could tell when someone was evading a question. He had asked a lot of times if he could go to the academy and after the first time, he simply got an evasion of the question rather than a straight up answer.

On the other hand, Naruto had never been given anything by anyone that wasn't forced to by their job title. The thought of someone offering him something was a completely foreign concept.

It didn't really take long at all for Naruto to come to a decision. He accepted the treat and immediately put in his mouth.

"You seem to be so devoted to your ninja training Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said with a smile on his face. The book that Naruto had in front of him was an incredibly advanced bit on being a ninja for someone his age. Admittedly that happened to only be a how to book for opening your chakra reserves but still, for a four year old, it was advanced material.

Naruto didn't react at all to the fact that someone such as the Sandaime Hokage knowing his name. Apart from the fact that Naruto knew that everyone in Konoha knew who he was just from a single glance. The man beside him happened to be the person who taught his father. If there was anyone that knew who he was, then it was the Sandaime.

"Yes sir" Naruto politely said to the former Hokage. He didn't want to say or do anything to get himself in trouble. He had a hard enough time as it was let alone even more issues to deal with.

Hiruzen was curious when he heard this. He wondered what it was that drove Naruto to start learning how to become a shinobi at such a young age. "Why so Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen questioned Naruto who got a determined look on his face. When the Sandaime saw this, he felt a serious case of Déjà vu happening right then. He felt as if he was looking at Orochimaru as a child and not Naruto.

"'Cause I don't have ova choices. People aren't gonna give me a job cause a who my father is." There was a frown on the face of Naruto when he said this.

"What about the academy Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen thought that the potential that Naruto was showing was simply too good for him to be confined to the library.

Naruto seemed to get even more into his shell when Hiruzen asked this question. "Don't wanna talk about it." Naruto said and left it that.

_Minato what have you done? You've let your hatred prevent you from seeing how talented Naruto is. _Hiruzen thought to himself. He could see that just from one meeting that Naruto was going to become an outstanding shinobi whether Konoha made him or not. He didn't want to make the same mistake again in regards to this line. If Naruto continued to receive the treatment that he did then he could result in the second coming of Orochimaru. It was not that big a stretch of the imagination considering Konoha did nothing to Orochimaru and he turned to the dark side.

"How would you like me to train you Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen questioned with a smile on his face.

The second that he heard this, Naruto knew that this was once in a lifetime opportunity for him. You didn't get offered by a Kage to be personally trained by them every day. Of course, in the back of Naruto's mind, there had to be some ulterior motive that the Sandaime had for teaching him but honestly, he didn't care.

"I would love that Hokage-sama." Naruto said in response. There was a small smile on his face as he wondered just how far he could go with the help of the Sandaime Hokage.

Hiruzen smiled in response. He finally had a chance to repent for all of the mistakes that he had made with Orochimaru thanks to Naruto. He would guide Naruto down the path to becoming a fine Konoha shinobi even if Minato was a fool for not allowing him the chance of attending the academy.

**x-X-x**

It was the day after the former Hokage of Konoha had offered Naruto the chance for him to train the boy. They had arrived at a private training ground owned by the Sarutobi clan.

"How are you feeling Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen questioned.

Young Naruto wasn't too sure what he was supposed to say. "I'm happy."

"That's very good Naruto-kun. Now training with me is not going to be easy. It is going to be the complete opposite of that Naruto in fact. At the end of every day you will be barely able to walk you will be in so much pain. Are you ready for that each and every single day from now on?" Hiruzen questioned in a stern voice, something that was the first that Naruto had ever heard.

A lot of the words that Hiruzen said went over the head of Naruto. After all he was only four and despite the fact that he was smart for his age, there were still a lot of things that he had yet to learn.

Naruto at least got the message loud and clear that this was going to be real hard training. He honestly didn't care one bit though. It wasn't as if he had any other options a part from going back to the library for 10 hours a day. This way he got hands on training which he knew would be much better than just reading about it in a book.

"Yep." Naruto responded with a grin on his face. He couldn't wait to get started!

"That is just what I want to hear." Hiruzen said to Naruto before he started the lesson. "Now how much do you already know about being a shinobi?"

Naruto eagerly began rattling of the things that he knew. "I know what chakra is and I have even unlocked mine. I know that there are different types of chakra and different types of jutsu. I know the ranks and I know that there are other villages out there that are run just like this one." Naruto stated to the Sandaime.

Said man nodded and he was incredibly impressed with the knowledge that Naruto had already garnered. What he was more impressed by was the fact that Naruto had managed to unlock his chakra network. In reality he knew that he shouldn't be that shocked considering just who he boy's father is.

Sarutobi walked over to one of the trees nearby. He then plucked a leaf off of it and walked back over to Naruto. "Naruto, I want you to place this on the bottom of your hand. I want you not let it fall using only your chakra." Naruto nodded and did exactly what his teacher asked of him.

It was no surprise that the first time that Naruto did it, the leaf fell off instantly. Hiruzen chuckled. Naruto got frustrated at this and got even more determined. He didn't want to think that the only person to ever offer him something to think that he wasn't worth training.

"Naruto-kun, put the leaf in the palm of your hand and hold it so that your palm is facing up. Only start turning it once you think that you chakra is going to keep it from falling." Naruto nodded and thanked the man for the advice.

With a look of upmost concentration on his face, the four year old Naruto did exactly what the Sandaime had said. A full minute had passed before he felt confident in turning his hand over. He was okay with failing once. He wasn't okay with failing twice. That meant that he hadn't learnt his lesson the first time around.

The leaf slowly started falling from his palm and Naruto willed his chakra to keep the leaf up. He struggled even going to the point where he clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. A few seconds past by and Naruto dared to look down at his hand. Right there in the palm of his hand was still the leaf connected to his body with nothing but chakra.

There was a gleeful smile on his face when he realised that he had just done what was asked of him. There was no better feeling than seeing the smile on the face of the Sandaime.

Once a minute passed, Naruto realised that he couldn't hold onto the leaf anymore simply because all of his chakra had run out. Naruto dropped the leaf and got into a crouching position as he rapidly tried to get some air into his lungs.

"That is very impressive Naruto-kun." The Sandaime said as he watched the performance of Naruto.

"I can see you are out of chakra Naruto." Naruto managed to nod at this. "Yes, chakra is like any muscle in your body. The first time that you use it, it will be weak but the more times you use it, the stronger it gets." Hiruzen explained to the toddler who once again nodded.

"Now Naruto, don't think that that is all for your training. In fact that is only the beginning. I want you to do 10 body weight squats, 5 push ups and five sit ups. To finish it off I want you to do a lap of this training field. I want you to warm up before we start our taijutsu kata training."

Naruto simply nodded. He wasn't much for words as he thought that actions spoke much louder than them. He got down to the ground and started to do his sit ups. He found them hard but Naruto managed to complete them without any real trouble.

He quickly found out that the push ups were the hardest because he had never used the muscles in his chest and triceps before. To his utter embarrassment, Naruto could not even complete the five that had been asked of him. He knew that he now had something to work on outside of his training.

The black haired boy quickly went into the body weight squats and happened to find them the easiest. Once they were done, Naruto started doing his two laps around the training ground that he and the Sandaime Hokage were at. By the time that he was done, he was exhausted, sweat was coming off of his body and yet, he was still more than determined to complete whatever it was that Hiruzen Sarutobi had planned out for him.

He didn't want the former Hokage to decide not to train him anymore.

Naruto grunted as he got up from the ground and got prepared for the taijutsu training.

Hiruzen was impressed at the mindset of his newest student. He could easily see that Naruto could be this generation's Minato.

**x-X-x**

Naruto was struggling for food. He had just completed his hellish training with the Sandaime Hokage or as he liked to call him… grandpa and Naruto knew that the orphanage wouldn't be giving out any food for at least six hours.

He had been so engrossed in his training that Naruto had not realised what the time was and had missed the cut off point for lunch.

His stomach grumbled and he knew that he wouldn't be able to last until six at night. Naruto came to a decision on the spot that he knew his grandfather would not be happy with at all if he found out. In fact, Naruto guessed that there was the possibility that his grandfather might stop their training if he found out what Naruto planned to do.

After leaving the private training ground of the Sarutobi clan, Naruto headed for the market district. As he made sure to be as obscure as possible, the black haired boy headed into a store that threw particularly harsh insults his way concerning the fact of whom his father was.

Naruto got the goods that he wanted to purchase, put them on the table. The cashier didn't notice who it was that was buying the goods and immediately put them in a bag. When he looked up to receive the money, the teenager saw Naruto with his hands in a weird sign language pose and then his mind went blank.

He handed over the goods without question and when Naruto walked away, he didn't even know that the boy had even been in the store.

The pale boy left the store and instantly made haste via the rooftops. Once he got to a secluded spot using the same exit out of Konoha's main walls that his grandpa had showed him.

Naruto made his way back to the training ground, got two sticks and through the use of chakra started a small fire. Naruto quickly got some branches from a dead tree and used them to increase the potency of the fire that he had started.

The hazel eyed boy who had slits running through them got out the meat that he had uniquely acquired and placed it in the fire.

As he waited for the fire to cook his lunch, Naruto opened up the litre of full cream milk and started drinking like there was tomorrow.

The studies that Naruto did whenever he wasn't training, eating or sleeping weren't just related to the shinobi arts. There was only so much he could read without reading the same thing twice. After all, he was only a civilian and pretty much everything that he wanted to read needed at least a genin clearance to gain access to.

Naruto didn't have that so he spent his time reading up on any and everything that took his fancy. The part that Naruto found most interesting was how the human body worked. He knew that if he wanted to become the best he couldn't just train to be the best. He knew that there had to be something else that had to be done to separate the good from the great.

The black haired boy found out you had to at least have 8 hours of sleep as an adult and even more as a child if they wanted their body to properly recover and improve.

There was that and there was also a rule that if you wanted to build any form of muscle that you had to eat at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. He knew that at the orphanage he would be lucky to get half of what he needed on any given day.

Naruto quickly attributed this to the reason why he was far behind in his taijutsu and body conditioning compared to his ninjutsu and genjutsu.

When Naruto finished the milk which had a lot of fat and protein in it, Naruto flipped the meat on the fire and got out an avocado and some cottage cheese. He knew he was going to be absolutely bloated by the time that he finished the food but Naruto didn't care one bit.

His body needed as much fat and protein that it could possibly get its hands on. His grandpa had commented numerous times that his body was nothing but skin and bones.

Eventually, when he had finished that, Naruto got the meat off of the fire and checked to see if it was cooked enough. He wasn't at a point where he could not eat food if it didn't taste good so he got stuck into eating the piece of steak with his bare hands.

When all of the food had been polished off by the starving seven year old boy, Naruto got the plastic bag, dipped it into the pond, got the water and extinguished the fire. Naruto used a quick Doton ninjutsu to bury all of the evidence that a fire had even taken place.

With everything done, Naruto took the plastic bag and headed for the library. Just because training with the Sandaime was over for the day, it didn't mean that Naruto couldn't train by himself.

Reading fiction stories were the perfect way as far as he was concerned to help improve his genjutsu.

**x-X-x**

Naruto cursed under his breath. He had forgotten to end training early enough yet again so that he could go and get some lunch from the orphanage.

His body did indeed thank him for all of the extra food that he had eaten the day before and now that it knew that such a thing was possible, it was craving for the same treatment again.

"Well I did it yesterday and nothing went wrong, so as long as I do it to a high standard, no one will catch me." Naruto said to himself. The first part was him trying to justify committing the crime of stealing. The second part was to justify himself that he could get away with what he was doing.

**x-X-x**

"Sandaime-sama, why is it that you have called a council meeting?" Minato curiously questioned. There was nothing that he was aware of that warranted the convening of a council meeting.

"Yes Hiruzen, what is it that you have dragged us here for?" Danzo questioned to his former teammate. Every one of the clan heads which included Kushina Uzumaki.

"I have recently spotted the son of Orochimaru training."

"You brought us here to talk about that hell spawn!?" Kushina called out in outrage. It was bad enough that she had to live in the same village as that man's son let alone have to talk about him.

"Is that true Hiruzen? Did you bring us all here to talk about that thing?" Minato's happy expression quickly changed. The happy man had gone and the killer of over 10,000 people had returned in its place.

"I have seen how skilled as a shinobi he is and let me tell you that he is beyond any shadow of a doubt a prodigy despite not going to the academy." Hiruzen commented although he was annoyed at the sudden change in respect that Minato had for him.

Danzo knew just how much of a shit storm this would cause and internally he was cursing himself for not having sent any of his shinobi to see what the kid was like. If he knew that the son of Orochimaru would have this much skill as a shinobi despite having not gone to the academy, he would have immediately acquired him for ROOT.

Danzo quickly cut in before anyone could say anything. If he didn't say anything now then it would get into a penis measuring contest as to who could give the best insult to the son of Hiruzen's former student.

"How skilled are we talking Hiruzen?" Danzo questioned to which both Homura and Koharu both nodded. _Trust those three to see the real issue at hand._

"Obviously I haven't seen as everything that he has to offer from just one training session but I guess that he would be at a similar level to Itachi." The second that the Sandaime Hokage dropped the I-bomb; everyone went silent for a couple of seconds. That was a massive claim to make and everyone took notice of what the former boss man had to say. Even Minato and Kushina who hated the thought of Orochimaru's spawn. They hated it even more when Hiruzen mentioned that he was as skilled as their godson.

"That is troubling." Koharu said out loud and Danzo, Homura, Shibi and Shikaku all nodded in agreement at this.

They saw the real problem rather than the fact that Naruto was so skilled. The real problem happened to be the fact that since Naruto was a civilian, he was free to leave the village at any time he wanted. To have the thirteen year old son of Konoha's most hated enemy who also had the skill level to match Itachi was a recipe for disaster if they had ever heard of one.

If there was anyone who had a reason to do anything against Konoha, it was Naruto given the treatment he had received as a child growing up. Not even Madara had been as harshly treated before he left.

"What! How can he be so skilled that he is the same level as Itachi-kun if he didn't go to the academy?" Kushina shouted in disbelief and outrage. Fugaku who had heard this nodded his head in agreement. As far as he was concerned, no one was as skilled as his first born son, not even Minato.

"I am not too sure, he is Orochimaru's son after all" was all that Hiruzen had to say. All of the civilians in the room and even some of the clan heads bought this. The rest of the people knew that there was some information that they did not know which would explain this. There was no possible way for an orphaned child to become that skilled without someone to teach him.

Maybe if he was a child from a clan that had access to all of the scrolls in their clan library, then maybe. For an orphaned child who had no one to teach him and not a single clan jutsu scroll to learn from? It was impossible.

"How are we going to keep him in Konoha? Why do you ask, well because he is a civilian and he is free to leave Konoha whenever he wants to." Shibi stated which got the council back on track to the most prominent question.

"What! He can't do that! He's too powerful of a shinobi to leave the village!" this was the general consensus of the civilian council members. Despite the fact that Naruto was the son of the most hated man, they were not dumb enough to realise what having him in their ranks would do for their military strength.

Minato grinded his teeth when he heard this. He wanted to execute the boy from the day he found out about him. It was only through public opinion that he stopped from doing what he wanted to do. The killing of an infant who had nothing would harm his approval and he was still only a new Kage at the time.

If the threat of a civil uprising was large enough, then Minato would be forced to step down over his anger at a child who couldn't even walk or talk thereby reinstating the third Hokage once more.

This was not something that he wanted to happen at any cost so Minato bit the bullet and swallowed one desire for another. Luckily he had Kushina to support him through everything and she agreed wholeheartedly with his beliefs.

"We could offer him to become a genin?" Shikaku offered to the council. A lot of them agreed with this suggestion. They felt that it would be the best way to gain another extremely powerful shinobi.

"Absolutely not!" Kushina screamed as she wore her heart on her sleeve. If there was something that she did not like, she was not afraid to point that out to anyone. She took for granted the fact that she knew that Minato would back her up on this.

The fact that he didn't shocked the red haired woman. "Minato!" Kushina questioned in a scandalized tone.

"Know your role and shut your mouth." Danzo said and privately everyone agreed with him. They felt that Kushina tried to influence the Hokage because she was letting him lick her sugar walls.

"You best remember your own position Shimura." Minato said in an icy tone. No one ever insulted those who he cared about. He then turned and faced his wife of fifteen years. "Kushina-chan, as much as I don't like the choice personally because of what Orochimaru has done to our family, as the Hokage I can't let a shinobi of that calibre leave Konoha when he was wants to be one of our shinobi. If he left and joined another village, that power shift might be enough for one of our enemies to get more aggressive." Minato said with a look of distaste on his face.

Kushina begrudgingly nodded. Just because she accepted the decision didn't mean that she didn't have to like it.

"Alright, you've now piqued my curiosity Sandaime-sama, get the boy and bring him to the training ground seven. I want to see what it is about this kid is so special. He will be fighting up against Kushina's genin team all by himself, if he wins, he can become a genin, if not, he will be permanently barred from becoming a shinobi and all of his skills will be sealed away. This meeting is over." Minato stated to the group of men and women.

He still didn't believe that Naruto was even possible for being at the level of Itachi. Minato thought that this was an attempt for Hiruzen to ease his guilty conscience by giving the boy a chance to become a genin. He couldn't wait to see how this backfired.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am currently undecided as to the entire skillset of Naruto in this story and if you have any ideas that you think might work well with this setting, feel free to send them my way so we can discuss them!**

**Oh and If any of you get the pop culture reference I chucked in there, then you your childhood must have been ruined with the switch to PG.**


	2. If you had one moment

Naruto was finally at the point where he knew that if something didn't happen soon, he was going to have leave Konoha because the place was simply untenable. He simply couldn't live in an orphanage anymore. There were so many things that he wanted to do and to do them you needed money. Of course he could go and steal, pillage and forcefully get what he wanted but Naruto wasn't that type of person, he had been taught better than to do that by the Sandaime Hokage.

It went without saying that the fact that he stole food was a necessity for him to live. He hadn't stolen any swords or even new clothes. He wore whatever he was able to garner at the orphanage. This could easily be told by the fact that there were multiple holes in his shirt and the fact that it clung tight to his skin given that it was two sizes too small.

He really hoped that the plan that the Sandaime had was one that would get him into the ninja corps because if not, as much as he loved his grandfather, Naruto would have to leave Konoha. Living in an orphanage without any source of income was simply not possible. He would be kicked out at 15 without any influx of money meaning he would have to resort to drastic measures.

It was then that the Sandaime came back from his council meeting and met Naruto in the orphanage. Naruto was the sole kid swinging in the playground. Hiruzen's heart went out to the boy when he saw this.

It was why he was so happy that he had a chance to turn the child's life around. He had some good news for Naruto. "Hi there Naruto-kun, I just came back from the meeting." Hiruzen said with a straight face.

"And…?" Naruto questioned. He tried to hide the look of excitement on his face just in case his hopes were crushed. The black haired boy couldn't though as there it was.

"You have a chance to become a genin!" The Sandaime said with a big smile on his face.

A smile appeared on the face of Naruto. It was so big that it nearly split open his face. "Yay! This is great grandpa!" Naruto said with tears coming from his eyes. He jumped off of the swing from the top and rushed over to the aging man and gave him a hug.

Hiruzen returned the hug it filled him with pride to see that despite the fact that Naruto being the son of Orochimaru, he was still a good person on the inside. That was surprising when you considered how much shit he copped due to his lineage.

"You have to immediately go to the academy and you will take the same test that other genin have taken although the final exam will be a bit different." Naruto nodded at this. He was confident that no matter what the test was, he could pass it. The black haired boy had been training pretty much all of his life for just one moment, one opportunity, to seize everything that he ever wanted. He would capture it; there was no chance that he would let it slip through his hands.

"Okay, so what is it that I have to do?" Naruto questioned as he got into business mode.

"Instead of having a taijutsu spar with the chunin instructor, Naruto you will be having a full on fight with a genin team that just recently passed and made genin." Naruto nodded when he heard this. He knew that they would be the same age as himself. What he didn't know was how strong these genin were going to be. Of course he knew what the test was but he didn't know if there was anything else that they knew.

"Alright then Hiruzen-sensei, I'll go to the academy now then." Naruto stated to which Hiruzen nodded and accompanied him.

**x-X-x**

"Why do we have to be here mum and dad?" Azula questioned as she held her hands across her chest. Today was supposed to be a day off but now she had to be back at the academy, the hell hole she had thought she had just gotten out of.

Minato was the one to speak up. "There is a new student who is attempting to graduate. Since he hasn't gone to the academy, we have decided to give him a test to adequately asses his skills and whether or not he is fit to join the Konoha Defence Force."

"So how do we fit into that picture?" Sasuke questioned. He too shared the same mindset as Azula.

"I have decided that for their final test that they will be going up against you three at once." Minato said without any form of expression on the face of the Yondaime.

"I-isn't that a bit unfair Hokage-sama?" Sakura Haruno questioned and a look of hesitation flashed across her face.

"I want to send a message to let people know that the primary way of becoming a shinobi is to go through the academy." When Minato said this, Sakura realised that this was more than the new student. If only she knew all of the information.

It was then that Iruka came out of the classroom with Naruto following shortly after. Naruto now found himself looking at what he assumed were going to be his opponents. Naruto also found himself looking at the man who had prevented him from becoming a shinobi. It was safe to say that he didn't particularly like him all that much. There was another woman who he knew to be the wife of the Hokage.

"Now, Naruto, for your final test, you will be going up against Team Seven. Should you win, you will be officially awarded the rank of genin." Iruka denounced to everyone who was watching. When team Seven heard this, they nodded respectively and headed to the makeshift arena.

"I will be the proctor for this fight. There will be nothing that can cause permanent injuries. If I see anything like that I will call this fight over." Iruka said and looked at both parties. Once he got a nod out of everyone, he called the start of the match.

Naruto merely lifted his hand up slightly and pointed at the three genin shinobi. This was an action that forced all three of them to stare at his hand. That was a big mistake.

A second later and Sasuke started clutching his head and screamed. He quickly dropped down to the ground and muttered "No, Itachi!" It was something that was so out of character for Sasuke that everyone including the three veteran ninjas standing around that they didn't notice Naruto go through some hand seals.

They were broken out of their trance when Azula broadly proclaimed how she was going to beat her father and become the first ever female Hokage! She sprinted off to the left and started engaging in a hectic taijutsu battle with the Yondaime Hokage. Well that was as far as she thought. Instead she was merely shadow sparring, looking in the complete opposite direction of Naruto.

It was only now that Sakura realised just how quickly the tables had turned. In a matter of seconds, Naruto had quickly and efficiently taken out two of her teammates without having even touched them!

She backed up a few steps as she came to the conclusion that she was now on her own. She didn't have either of Azula or Sasuke to back her up. The thought of going up against someone that could take those two out in mere seconds was something that frightened the hell out of the pink haired girl.

Her hands shook as she got a kunai and threw it as powerfully as she could right at Naruto.

The black haired boy dodged this and moved at a pace that was fast for Sakura. She didn't have a weapon in her hand and as she saw Naruto coming towards her, she attempted to bring her hands up into the academy guard position.

Unfortunately for her this was not quick enough as Naruto manoeuvred right through her guard and delivered a powerful punch to her ribs. This sent her down to the ground as she clutched her chest, struggling to breathe. Her vision had gone blurry from the hit.

Before anything else could happen, Iruka quickly moved between the two and put his hands up in a horizontal motion. "It is clear to me that this fight is over." Iruka said and he was definitely surprised at the fact that this boy was able to seal less genjutsu as he showed with Sasuke.

A person able to that was not a genin and if this kid had any experience and it was up to him, he would promote him straight to special jonin at least. There was a lot left that he had not shown and Naruto could know a whole host of other jutsus to use.

"Well that was rather disappointing." Naruto bluntly stated to which everyone couldn't help but agree. It seemed that breaking out of genjutsus was not something that was taught at the academy. There was that and there was also that and the fact that Naruto was understating his abilities in genjutsu.

To be able to use seal less genjutsus was something that both Minato and Kushina knew that one other person was capable of. He had heard of another up and coming genjutsu mistress but she was not on the level of his best jonin.

Now Minato knew why it was that Hiruzen said that Naruto was on the same level as Itachi; he was indeed on the same level at least in his application of genjutsu to the Uchiha prodigy. Whether or not he was able to do this to more accomplished shinobi was another matter but the Yondaime knew that this kid was something special whether he liked to admit it or not. Passing up on a shinobi like that was simply not an option.

"You have officially passed the test to become a genin. Here is your headband." Iruka stated to the child as he gave out the official hardware which stated what his job was.

Naruto graciously accepted the head band. His fingers trembled as he finally got something which he had coveted for his entire existence. It meant so much to him that when he brought it up and tied underneath his long hair, Naruto's were shaking every step of the way.

"Now Naruto, if you would please dispel the genjutsus on both Azula and Sasuke, that would be great." Iruka said to Naruto who merely nodded. When he did this, Azula broke out of her trance and wondered why she no longer saw her father panting on the ground ready to hand over the title of Hokage to her.

Sasuke on the other hand had a look of utter detest and rage on his face. He had just seen his entire family brutally murdered in the blink of an eye by his brother of all people. When you considered just how much the Uchiha valued family, it was easy to see why Sasuke was none too happy.

In hindsight, he might be okay with this scenario but right now, Sasuke was absolutely livid and charged directly at Naruto pulling a kunai out of his pocket and ready to take his life away. The one tomoe sharingan in each eye only served to make the visage of Sasuke that much scarier.

Minato instantly realised what had happened to his second godson and took control of the situation. "Iruka, here now." Minato called out and the chunin instructor immediately headed the call and let the ensuing fight between Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha.

As far as the Yondaime was concerned, this fight was going to show him more of Naruto's skills as a shinobi than a single punch a two genjutsu would. Sasuke now had his sharingan activated would allow him a much better chance in dispelling the genjutsus that Naruto had in his bag of tricks.

He was unaware of it at the time but Sasuke was unintentionally channelling chakra into his muscles to project his body faster. When he got in range, Sasuke launched a vicious punch right at the face of Naruto.

The black haired boy chose to swat the attack to the side and return with his own jab to Sasuke's jab. Thanks to the sharingan in the eye sockets of Sasuke, he quickly moved to the side and dodged the punch by the skin of his teeth. Naruto followed up by forcing Sasuke on the defensive.

Naruto gave a powerful kick to the hip of Sasuke. In a surprising move from Sasuke, he forcefully pushed his body down to the ground in a push up position. Naruto quickly followed up with the intention of dropping his heal onto the head of Sasuke.

Thankfully for the Uchiha, he saw the incoming attack and dodged it by doing a barrel roll. The movement surprised Naruto. Sasuke was unconcerned with this though, he wanted to make the person who put him under that genjutsu pay.

Sasuke launched through his leg muscles and attempted to punch Naruto in the face. Naruto didn't have any of this though as he used his superior speed to dodge the attack.

The Uchiha now noticed the fact that this taijutsu fight was even in that neither one of them could get a hit on each other. He didn't increase the distance between the two and instead decided to start going through some hand seals. "Katon goukakyuu no jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball jutsu.)" Sasuke called the name out as it helped him perform the jutsu.

Naruto quickly went through hand seals of his own and thanks to the sharingan of Sasuke, the young Uchiha managed to copy the jutsu that Naruto was preparing to use.

Naruto placed his hands down on the ground and through the use of his chakra, he gathered up a large amount of water from underground and used that to produce a large wall of water which spurted up out of the ground.

Sasuke was peeved at the fact that the person who looked his age new a direct counter to his jutsu. That being said, he hoped to catch him off guard by launching off the same jutsu again. The idea behind this was that the water wall would drop right at the time that his jutsu would pass through and therefore leave his enemy no chance to recreate it again.

His plan worked perfectly and the searing fireball which was the trademark of the Uchiha clan passed over the top of the water which had dropped to the ground.

The Naruto on the other side had a look of panic on his face. Sasuke meanwhile had a superior look on his face. To Sasuke's surprise, Naruto didn't suffer any form of burns despite the fireball connecting. Initially Sasuke thought that he was under another genjutsu and tried to break it. He realised that he was not under a genjutsu when Naruto turned into water and got evaporated.

By that time though, it was already too late. Naruto had appeared behind Sasuke. The kicker was the fact that he had a kunai pressed right into his neck.

"This fight is over." Minato called out. He had seen enough of Naruto that he indeed was just like what the Sandaime had said about the boy. He was far too much of a talent to hold back because of a grudge. The thought of someone like Iwa or Kumo getting their dirty hands on him put a vile taste in his mouth.

Naruto put the kunai in his hand down but did not get rid of the kunai. The Uchiha had attacked him outside of the official match and who was to say that he wouldn't do it again?

"Congratulations on activating your sharingan Sasuke-chan!" Kushina said loudly in happiness. She was really proud of her godson.

Sasuke was surprised when he heard this. Of course it he felt that it was easy to predict the attacks in comparison to normal but he didn't realise his sharingan had been activated.

He walked rather hurriedly over to Kushina and asked for a reflective surface. As a mother who also doubled up as a sealing specialist, she carried around a whole bunch of things on her personage and a mirror happened to be one of them.

"Sure Sasuke-chan." Kushina said with a big grin on her face. Despite the many times that he had tried to get his sensei to stop calling him that name, Sasuke came up short every time. Eventually he just got to a point where he just accepted it.

As this was happening, Sakura had gotten up and was now staring at Naruto. She had just watched the fight between Sasuke and Naruto and was regarding the boy in a new light. He was pretty cool by proxy of his shinobi skills. She guessed that he could also be called cute if he cleaned himself got rid of his whole "I've got no money next to my name" look.

Minato walked over to Naruto. "That was very impressive for someone so young. You will be joining Team Seven which is captained by my wife. They training starts at nine am every day. Make sure you are there." Minato said before leaving back to his office via the hiraishin. He was a very busy man.

Despite the fact that he had a new team that he could now call his, he still very much felt like he was on the outside looking in. he wanted to celebrate it with the person who meant the world to him, his grandfather. Naruto left the scene of the crime and headed for the same private training ground that he had spent most of his life training at.

When he arrived there, Hiruzen was waiting for him. "Congratulations Naruto today is the start of a new life. You are now a Konoha shinobi." Hiruzen said with a look of pride on his face.

"Thank you grandpa, it means so much to me." Naruto said and gave the biggest hug he could muster.

"Haha, careful now Naruto-kun, you'll crush an old man like me with a big hug like that." The former Hokage of Konoha stated as he pried the hazel eyed boy off of him.

"Now Naruto-kun, there will be no training today as now that you are a genin, the orphanage will not take you back. This means that you will have to find some accommodation." Hiruzen lectured to the boy who nodded.

"But I don't have any money." Naruto said in a rare moment where he aired one of his insecurities. He knew as much as everyone else that he was a dirt poor orphan but he didn't like being reminded about it.

It was then that Naruto heard a jingling noise. He turned his head to where the noise was coming from and could not believe his eyes. Right there in front of his eyes was a pair of keys. The Sandaime Hokage chucked them to Naruto who immediately caught them. "W-w-w-what?" Naruto said as he struggled to process the new information that he had been given.

There was a big smile on the face of Sarutobi. "Naruto, I have set up an apartment for you and I have also covered the first week of rent free of charge. From then it will be up to you to cover it but I am sure that you can manage to do that."

Naruto was at a loss for words. He truly did not know what to say. He settled for letting loose a stray tear as he looked at his surrogate grandfather with an expression he didn't know what to categorize as.

"Now Naruto , your source of income will be completing D-ranked missions from now on. I want you to know that this will be work and not a chore like every other genin thinks of them as." Naruto didn't need to be told twice as he knew just how important money was. He had every intention of making a lot of it so that he had security and so he also got to have all of the luxuries that he missed out on as a kid.

He wanted to take initiative and make a head start in preparing his future. The Sandaime completely agreed with Naruto. He gave the boy the address and let him go to the mission hall to pick up his first ever D-ranked mission.

Thankfully for Naruto it had just turned past noon and he had the whole afternoon and some of the night to complete a lot of missions.

It was no surprise really when Naruto got his first mission and it happened to turn out to be simply catching a cat. Naruto didn't think that this was mission worthy but he was not complaining. All D-ranked missions had a set price of 15 ryo per mission.

It didn't matter the difficulty of the mission, the price was always the same. Naruto planned to take full advantage of this by completing as many of the smaller missions as possible.

Naruto managed to complete five missions during the time he had when the sun was up. That 60 ryo translated into a sealing scroll, an outfit of the cheapest clothes, a bottle of body wash soap, shampoo, conditioner and enough food to last Naruto an entire day.

With everything inside the storage scroll, Naruto headed to the location of his new apartment and was took stock with what he had to work with. He was not really all that surprised with how it looked inside.

There was absolutely no furniture and the only equipment in the house was the appliances in the kitchen, the shower and the sink in the bathroom. Everything else was missing.

Naruto didn't mind though as he still came to terms with the fact that he was finally a genin. He didn't mind having to sleep on the ground without a pillow or a blanket. It was summer and he was essentially sleeping in such conditions at the orphanage.

**x-X-x**

Naruto had prepared as best as he could for his first ever day as a genin ninja. He had gotten up at 5am in the morning before the dark sky even started to get a smidgen lighter. By the time he had had a shower, got dressed and had breakfast, there was enough light outside for Naruto to make his way to the same training ground that he always used to go and get in is morning training session.

An hour and a half later and the blonde haired boy was done with his training. This didn't mean that would go home and relax before his training with team Seven started though. Naruto instead chose to go to the mission hall first thing in the morning and picked up two more D-ranked missions.

Eight thirty hit and Naruto had completed both of his missions with enough time to spare so that he could go home. The first thing that Naruto did when he got home was have another meal before heading back out to meet his team for the first time.

With everything sorted out and now he had some energy in the tank, Naruto arrived at the new training ground and found out that he was the first person there.

He settled for sitting down on a rock and patiently waited for his team. The first person to arrive was Sakura. "H-hello, so you're the new person joining the team right?" The pink haired girl questioned in a timid tone of voice.

"Yes." Naruto replied. He knew that since he was joining the team, he had to work well with them. There was the hope that he could become friends with them as well but he wasn't holding his breath.

Sakura noticed the rather blunt answer that he gave and took it as that Naruto didn't want to speak. "Oh… okay then Naruto-san. My name is Sakura Haruno" Sakura said as she had her head bent down slightly. That was all that was said between the two as they waited for the three other members of Team Seven to arrive.

First impressions were key as he had learnt from his grandfather and that you had to make sure that you mad a good one because it would stick even if you had changed.

His new sensei Kushina and his two other two teammates weren't exactly making a good one as far as he was concerned. It had been ten minutes already since the time that they had supposed to meet up and there was no sign of the three other members of Team Seven.

Another five minutes passed and eventually, the three shinobi came into the clearing. Naruto noticed that there was a blush on the face of his new sensei. He wasn't sure what the course of it was and he didn't care. He just wanted to get his training started.

"Sorry we're late dattebane! I got a little side tracked this morning and I didn't realise the time."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**I have still not completely decided on the specific details of Naruto's skill set at the moment so if you think you have cool idea, feel free to send it my way.**


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